Chicago Tribune Columnists

The White House has announced its "It's On Us" initiative aimed at combating sexual assaults on college campuses. I'm in favor of combating sexual assault, but the first priority in combating a problem is understanding it.

That's not the White House's first priority. Roughly six weeks before Election Day, its chief concern is to translate an exciting social media campaign into a get-out-the-vote operation.

Accurate statistics are of limited use in that regard because rape and sexual assault have been declining for decades. So the Obama administration and its allied activist groups trot out the claim that there is a rape epidemic victimizing 1 in 5 women on college...

Related "Chicago Tribune Columnists" Articles

The White House has announced its "It's On Us" initiative aimed at combating sexual assaults on college campuses. I'm in favor of combating sexual assault, but the first priority in combating a problem is understanding it.
That's not the White House's...

I never liked it when George W. Bush used the term "evildoers" to describe al-Qaida and other terrorists. Other people objected as well, but for different reasons.
I didn't like the term because it always sounded to me like he was saying "evil...

On Wildhoney's debut album, "Sleep Through It" (Deranged Records/Forward! Records), melodies unfold from a 3-D swirl of guitars. It's the type of record meant to be played at top volume inside the Grand Canyon, where those overdriven guitars can...

On the opening track of his debut album, "Ratchet" (XL), Shamir welcomes the listener to his hometown. If "Vegas" is sin city, he asks with the unhurried air of someone who's been out in the desert sun all day, does that mean he's already in hell?
The...

Vocal powerhouse Amy Winehouse dominated the 2008 Grammys with her album “Back to Black.” Three years later she was dead from alcohol poisoning compounded by drug addiction. The strong, sobering new documentary “Amy” from “Senna” director Asif Kapadia,...

The chemistry of a team — any team in any sport — is a profound mystery. In pro football, the ultimate team game in which virtually every player relies on another, building a team and creating chemistry can be downright confounding.The process requires...

There are so many important things we can learn from famous people. For example, the key to being called "brave" is allowing yourself to be photographed without makeup. And better health is easily obtained by eating foods no one has ever heard of prepared...

The email arrived Jan. 19 carrying the subject line "sudden loss."
It was from a man named Harry Hirsch, a reader of this column writing to tell me his wife, Libby Sohn-Hirsch, had died just days earlier at the age of 86.
He wrote in the email: "I...

I think we can all agree that the best way to deal with abusive bosses and managers is to round them up and ship them to a small island in the Pacific Ocean, preferably one populated by an unusually large number of hungry tigers.
Sadly, that method is...

I've got to admit that it has been a barrel of fun watching the political left get its "Je suis Charlie" all tied up in knots over the movie "American Sniper."
They're tweeting and making angry faces, insisting that the movie is not appropriate...

It's hard to believe that was only President Obama's sixth State of the Union address. It feels like he's given so many more. Maybe that's because the man seems to be constantly talking. And talking. The talking is the background noise of much of the last...

The workplace made its way on to Twitter the other day as users went creatively crazy with the hashtag #FiveWordsToRuinAJobInterview.
Here are a few examples:
"It's prosthetic. My nose. See?" — @trumpetcake
"Have you seen my ferret?" — @IGotsSmarts
"I...

There is nothing quite like a plausible conspiracy theory to force a quick look over the shoulder and a swift mental connection of intriguing coincidence. Exactly when did John Fox know he was out in Denver and, more interestingly, when did the Bears know...

I have several resolutions for this column in 2015:
1. Hone the "America's most-beloved workplace advice columnist" brand; maybe get it printed on T-shirts.
2. Sell editors on in-person expose about people whose workplace is a beach-side bar in Bali.
...

It was the old Argentine rugby player Ernesto "Che" Guevara who once observed: "The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.''
The Bears need to apply that reasoning to life with new coach John Fox, who somehow...

Many conservatives finished the year angry about the same thing they were angry about at the beginning of the year: liberal double standards.
As I write this, GOP House Whip Steve Scalise is in hot water over reports that he spoke to a group of racist...

There is no denying that the Bears season has been an unmitigated disaster. And there is no way to classify the key decision-makers at Halas Hall as anything less than critically endangered … if only in the minds of hopeful Bears fans.
Everyone has a...

For a long time I resisted the word "torture" when discussing the "enhanced interrogation techniques" used against high-value captives in the war on terror. I don't think I can do that anymore.
The report put out by Diane Feinstein and her fellow...

In 1975, eight years before Jay Cutler was born and nine before the arrival of Brandon Marshall, the Magnuson-Moss Act became law. It was designed to protect consumers from faulty warranties on products with the psychological benefit of reducing cognitive...

Reasonable people can disagree on whether racism was involved in the tragic death of Eric Garner. My own suspicion is that this misfortune could have transpired just as easily with a white man resisting arrest and/or a black cop choking him.
And even...